IRISH AFFAIRS

Hokitika Guardian, 3 October 1924, Page 2

IRISH AFFAIRS

Litia'xmta 1 iii,i:ciuiia. j ULSTER QUESTION. DEBATE i.V COMAIONS. I.ONDOX. October 1. i lie motion lur tin- rejection <:f ihc Irish Bill was defeated by 231 votes to 121. l!ic Bid was read for the second time. LONDON. October I. in the House oi Commons, Colonel AAY.lgewood Bean re-opened the Irish debate. He urged the adoption of an imperial att'.tuue on the question, iemembeiing that the salutinn lay in the unity of Ireland as a Dominion of the British Commonwealth, lie asked the t ou.ser.aiitcs to say ‘‘whether wo could break our word to the smallest Dominion without destroying the I'aitlt of Hie whole of the Dominions.’'

Air Austen Ciianilierlain (Conservative) accused tiie Government of altering the old Treaty. He hoped that the Government would not destroy the pussibiky of an agreement by putting pressure on one side omy.

Air .i. B. ( lynos deprecated the anticipations that wcic apparent in sonic* quarters timt disoiders in Ireland wmild follow the operation of the Bill. Mr I.hiyd George said that the Government’s action was peilVetly justified. -Mr J. Ji. Thomas, in winding up the donate, gave a guarantee that the Government did not intend to appoint and would not appoint a commission when the Bill be nine law merely as the nominee of the British Government. He would try to find a man who would be representative of Northern Ireland. Air Thomas expressed his long-n.oi.cd distaste for the necessity ol the appointment of a Boundary Commission. which he believed, would mean ilrJaod’c. purmetient partition, and

would have a ruinous effect oil Ireland’s economic development. He declared that neither of tiie Irish leaders was unreasonable, but that their positions note most diliicuii. LONDON. October I. ’! he "Daily Express” understands Lord Cars l .:!! will be tiie Government’s I ister nominee on tlie Boundary Commission. LONDON, October I. A paragraph ■ n Air Lloyd George’s speech during the House of Commons debate on the Irish Bill emphatically denied that pledges were given to Ulster by b.is Cabinet on the lilies suggested by tiie jate Lord Long.